


In Defense of Being

by homosociality



Category: X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: F/F, Gen, High School, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:26:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25867393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/homosociality/pseuds/homosociality
Summary: On their first day of upper school, Laura loses it. Kitty is there for her.
Relationships: Laura Kinney/Kitty Pryde
Comments: 8
Kudos: 16





	In Defense of Being

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lavenderlotion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lavenderlotion/gifts).



> Set in [lavenderlotion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lavenderlotion/pseuds/lavenderlotion)'s "[and all I know now is without you I could never find my way](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618789)" 'verse, where Hank and Logan adopt Jason Stryker and Laura.

Laura had been nervous to start Grade 7, but the first time Kitty registers that something is _really_ wrong is right after first period, when the shifting bodies of the older students fill the hallways as they move from homeroom to math. Laura is shaking, her fists clenched as though her claws are about to pop out, and she doesn't relax until halfway through Kurt's lesson about fractions. She gets shaky and tense all over again when the class is over and they're moving through the halls again, this time to Ororo's class about geography. Kitty slips her hand into Laura's, rubbing at her knuckles until her clenched fist loosens and Laura allows Kitty to wend her fingers through her own. "You okay?" she asks in an undertone.

Laura shakes her head, but Ororo seats them in alphabetical order so Kitty never gets a chance to ask. Kitty's a few seats back from Laura--"Pryde" following "McCoy"--and she gets a basic question about what continent Lebanon is on (South America? she guesses, to a wave of titters) because she's too busy watching Laura unbend, and wondering if the next passing period she'll tense up again.

They make it all the way to lunch. Laura's getting progressively wound up, further and further, and when Bobby accidentally bumps into her right after lunch (kosher hot dogs, and Kitty swaps her ketchup packets for Laura's mustard packets) Laura finally snaps.

She spins around, her backpack falling into her hand, swinging it like a mace, and snarls at Bobby. Bobby stumbles backward, yelping as he dodges her book-laden weapon. Kitty cries out and grabs Bobby just as Laura goes in for another swing; the backpack phases right through them. That seems to bring Laura back to reality. She drops the backpack with a cry, looking frantically between the two of them. "It's okay," Kitty tries to say, "no one got hurt," but Laura buries her face in her hands and darts to the girls' bathroom. Kitty catches a glimpse of hot shimmer tears flowing down her face, though Laura doesn't sob, doesn't scrunch up her face. Laura cries beautifully, not like Kitty, who gets red-faced and hiccupy, but it wrenches through Kitty all the same.

"Laura--" Kitty goes after her, barely aware that she's still got a hold on Bobby's arm. She's halfway down the hall when Bobby extricates himself from her grip.

"Jeez," Bobby says worriedly. "Is she okay?"

Kitty is about to reply, but John takes that moment to barge in with his _big fat mouth_ and _stupid self-righteous feelings._ "Watch out, Pryde!" John says, hovering protectively over Bobby. "It'll be you she slashes up next!"

Kitty sees red.

When she comes back to herself, everyone around her is shouting, "Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" and Kurt is hurrying towards them and Kitty has John in a headlock. "You take it back!" she shouts.

John shoves at her arm, but he can't budge her. "Screw you, Pryde!"

"You take it back or I'll tell everyone about what happened in spring break of third grade!" she hisses, quietly enough that no one else can hear. She's mad, she's not a snitch.

John pales. "Fine, fine! I take it back, I take it back!"

Kitty releases him, just as Kurt shoves his way past the circle of kids and towers over them. "What," he says, too-loudly, "is going on here!"

"Nothing," Kitty says sullenly, and elbows John subtly.

"Nuthin'," he agrees.

Kurt looks relieved. He's a pushover; he doesn't give detentions or anything if he can help it. "Okay," he says. "That is good. Children, back to your classes now. It is only the first day of school, yes? We do not want to break any rules on the first day of school." (Kitty figures Kurt must have been a real goody-two-shoes when he was growing up, because he genuinely seems to believe that.)

The crowd disperses, leaving just Bobby loitering by the lockers for John to collect himself, and John, red-faced, picking up his discarded backpack and shoving a stray notebook inside. "You better listen," Kitty says fiercely. "Because next time Mr. Wagner being around isn't going to stop me. Laura would never, ever hurt anyone who didn't deserve it, because she is a _good person,_ and unlike you, she can control herself and manage not to be a _big honking bully._ "

"Didn't look like it," John mutters under his breath.

Kitty takes a menacing step toward him. John scowls and grabs Bobby's sleeve and tows him off to fifth period. Kitty sighs and moves down the hall toward the girls' bathroom, but before she can get there, Jas appears in front of her, a little translucent. The butterfly clip in her hair is a real butterfly now, which is how Kitty knows that this is a mental projection, aside from the way she appeared out of thin air. "Jas?" she asks. "What are you doing?"

"I felt Laura being sad," Jas says. "It's okay, it's quiet reading time in class now. Is Laura okay?"

"I was just going to check on her," Kitty says. "Do you know why she was feeling so bad today?"

Jas looks uneasy. "I don't know. Maybe it's all the moving around from class to class. We had to move around a lot when we were... There. People were always taking us for tests and things." Kitty thinks about it, and the more she does, the more sense it makes. Laura has very acute senses. Usually she knows exactly where she is when she wakes up--Kitty's tried to sharpie her face a few times, but Laura can always smell the pungent pen and wakes up just in time to stop her--but being around so many people, changing rooms so often, the press of the crowd, the shouts of the kids... it must've all been very disorienting. Kitty nods sharply. She can fix this.

"Don't worry," she tells Jas. "Go back to reading. I'll take care of her."

Jas nods, her faith in Kitty total, and that makes Kitty warm, that two girls who have been hurt as much as Laura and Jas have such faith in her that they entrust each other to her care. Kitty marches the rest of the way down the hall to the restroom, and when she hears a hall monitor's footsteps approaching, flings herself sideways into the bathroom through the wall.

Laura's fists are clenched on the sink. She's staring into the mirror. When she looks at Kitty, her eyes are red, but she's thankfully stopped crying. "Did you mean that?" she asks softly.

"Mean what?" Kitty asks. She pulls out a few rough brown paper towels and dabs at Laura's eyes. Laura bears it stoically.

"That I'm a good person," Laura says. Kitty pauses. Right. Enhanced hearing.

"Of course I meant it," Kitty says sternly. "You're the best person I know."

Laura sniffles and throws her arms around Kitty, and Kitty hugs back, fierce, uncompromising. "Come on," she says. She holds out her hand, and Laura takes it. "When we're changing classrooms, you can focus on me, okay? Just focus on my hand, and my smell, and then it'll be just like we're hanging out together, not like you're back there."

"Okay," Laura says softly. She lingers a second in the bathroom, pulling Kitty close to her. "You're the best person I know, too, you know," she says quietly.

Kitty smiles at her. Later, Laura will tell her that this moment is the one where she fell in love: Kitty mussed from defending her, holding her hand, and smiling at her like she's the sun coming up, like she's the only other person in the world, like she's Laura to her Kitty and for once, for once, that is enough.


End file.
